Hand-coloured lithograph by an unknown artist. French, 1850-1870.E.2872-1938Today’s find is a group of six hand-coloured lithographs dated to the French Second Empire (1852-1870) showing the costumes of cantinières in the French Army. Cantinières (also known as vivandières) were women who officially served alongside their husbands in the armed combat forces from the eighteenth century...

A stereograph is composed of two pictures mounted next to each other, viewed with a set of lenses known as a stereoscope. Taken around 7cm apart, roughly corresponding to the spacing of the eyes, the left picture represents what the left eye would see, and likewise for the right, so when observing the pictures through a stereoscopic viewer, the pair of photographs converge into a single three-...

28 January 2013 marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice. Thanks to numerous TV and film adaptations of her works, Jane Austen’s name has become synonymous with the neo-classical style of dress that was popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries – it is almost impossible to imagine Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy...

At the end of November 2012, the V&A’s new Furniture Gallery opened up on our 6th floor. Alongside the great pieces on display, there are some novel approaches to interpretation and labelling.One such development was the replacement of printed labels with touch screen software, developed by the V&A Digital Media team. Today, we are releasing this software as open source on GitHub (...

The Late Medieval to Early Renaissance Year Course is marking its 20th anniversary in 2012-13. It’s the longest running of the V&A’s six Year Courses, each of which runs one day of the week during term-time, for a full academic year. Each day consists of three lectures on related themes, and there are additional gallery talks and visits. The Medieval to Renaissance Year Course...

These galleries, due to open in December 2014, are the next big gallery development after Medieval & Renaissance. When I took on the role of educator, I wondered how we could refresh our usual package of gallery interpretation and also show some of the social and intellectual changes that took place between 1600 and 1800. The answer struck me – as it usually does – as I was...

As a blanket of snow falls across the UK, it seems like a good time to highlight some objects in the Museum’s collections with wintry stories to tell.The Frost Fair MugThe winter of 1683-4 was so cold that the River Thames froze over. The ice was so thick that Londoners were able to head onto the river and engage in such incongruous activities as fox-hunting, bear-baiting and football. They...

One of the real privileges of working at a place like the Victoria and Albert Museum is being able to see behind the scenes and come across fascinating things by chance.We’ve been seeing such wonders over the last five years on the Factory project, so I and the rest of the team am delighted to be able to start sharing them with you more directly as we find them.If your curiosity is piqued...

The V&A is inviting applications from early to mid-career UK-based digital games designers who wish to develop their practice in response to the V&A’s Britain 1500 - 1900 galleries.The Residency will be based in the V&A for six months, and will include a substantial public engagement programme. It will be followed by a production period that will be based in Dundee, funded by...

150 years ago today, the very first journey on the London Underground took place. On 9th January 1863, a steam train travelled between Paddington and Farringdon and marked the opening of the world’s first underground railway.The V&A is proud to hold in its collections the original sketch diagram of Henry Beck’s iconic London Underground map, which this year celebrates its 80th...

The V&A Network is made up of a number of individual V&A blogs. Contributors hail from all over the Museum and include curators, educators, librarians, exhibition teams, artists, designers and archivists.

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